Usmnt - ***

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This loss is further evidence of why boys in our country should simply stop playing soccer. We can not compete with even the smallest countries in the world when we continue to funnel our 4th or 5th tier male athletes to this sport.

Baseball and Football numbers are way down, soccer now gets it's share of better athletes and there is now a domestic league that makes it a viable career. We just aren't doing enough to develop high caliber players. Look at the talent coming out of tiny countries like Belgium, tells me that we aren't doing something correctly. There is a reason that for a couple years in a row, none of the top 10 scorers in the MLS are Americans.

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Iceland, a nation with 1/2 the population of the city of Portland (not Metro! that's 335k people) qualifies in a confederation chock full of talented countries. The US doesn't "need" more kids, it needs to develop the kids who are interested into better players.

Gulati needs to step down. Major changes and investments need to be made.

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Agreed. The most simple answer seems to be more training for more players at the youth level. No silver-bullet program/coach will ever trump hours spent in the yard working on a handful of basic skills. 3-6hrs per week at team training isn't enough for kids to develop to the highest levels when kids from other countries are regularly getting 20hrs+ of ball time per week. Is it even possible to create a scheme to defeat that deficiency in hours of training time?

Maybe you are right. But maybe working harder is not the answer but maybe smarter. Maybe finding out what drives the great teams and players would yield some insight.

For years Asian countries and Russia have pulled kids out of their home life and put them into training facilities and 8 hour days training for Olympic sports. Their success has been marginal.

What motivates kids? What makes them love the game? Being more technically proficient? Working harder? Having fun?

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Standard Hysteria

1) America is not a soccer powerhouse, and is not a soccer nation. The Netherlands and Chile failed to qualify. Smaller countries all over the world are getting better at soccer. CONCACAF nations have improved thanks in part to MLS. Iceland made it for the first time.
2) We have a number of good looking young players. We were maddeningly inconsistent, but looked great at times. And we shouldn't have been in such a precarious position, but we were incredibly unlucky last night. Both of T&T's goals, Panama's ghost goal, and Mexico's own goal. A crazy amount of unlucky lined up last night.
3) Stop with the "Everybody needs to go." Especially when you don't have a replacement plan (other than "bring back high school soccer!"). That's such knee jerk. Soccer is more popular than ever in the U.S., and the current senior team is a mix of the old and the new. If anything, youth soccer needs to be more inclusive of lower income families, and of encouraging soccer outside of DAs and designated training times. Build multi purpose basketball/futsal courts near schools and in neighborhoods. Encourage pick up games. Yeah, the US may have 350 million people, but competitive soccer is not drawing on the kids in that 350 million, they are drawing on the middle and upper classes that can afford the costs. USSF should consider subsidizing competitive soccer clubs in inner city areas. Large untapped player pools, with kids that face adversity on a daily basis and have drive to succeed.

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MLS Statement on the fiasco:

Along with all of the US*national team supporters across this great soccer nation, we are disappointed that the United States did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup.* There is no denying that this is a setback for all of us involved with the game in our country. And while this is a missed opportunity for soccer in the United States, we remain incredibly bullish on the future of the sport.* Major League Soccer is more committed than ever to building the sport in the U.S. and Canada. We will continue to invest in all aspects of the sport, from player development, to creating world-class stadiums and training facilities and to having clubs that are committed to their communities.
We will take stock in the coming days and work to determine how we can continue to help the men’s national team become stronger and more successful going forward.
As we enter the home stretch of the MLS season, we are thankful to all of our supporters for their role in the growth of our league and the sport.

Not sure USMNT needs further help from the MLS - already gave us Arena.

[Unregistered]

Step One: Get US Soccer out of youth soccer. Kids aren't robots. US Soccer has no successful track record developing youth talent.

[Unregistered]

MLS Statement on the fiasco:

Along with all of the US*national team supporters across this great soccer nation, we are disappointed that the United States did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup.* There is no denying that this is a setback for all of us involved with the game in our country. And while this is a missed opportunity for soccer in the United States, we remain incredibly bullish on the future of the sport.* Major League Soccer is more committed than ever to building the sport in the U.S. and Canada. We will continue to invest in all aspects of the sport, from player development, to creating world-class stadiums and training facilities and to having clubs that are committed to their communities.
We will take stock in the coming days and work to determine how we can continue to help the men’s national team become stronger and more successful going forward.
As we enter the home stretch of the MLS season, we are thankful to all of our supporters for their role in the growth of our league and the sport.

Not sure USMNT needs further help from the MLS - already gave us Arena.

Armchair quarterback. Arena had qualified the US twice previously. US looked strong against Panama. All was well. And I've seen some people griping about him sending out the same line up, like it's totally obvious he should have changed it up. Had he changed it up, and they lost, people would be out of their mind that he changed it up. They also got screwed by a couple calls in the other games, but ignore all that, overturn the apple cart, and keep up the armchair quarterbacking. Americans are perpetually discontent, just waiting for moments like this to shine.

[Unregistered]

Armchair quarterback. Arena had qualified the US twice previously. US looked strong against Panama. All was well. And I've seen some people griping about him sending out the same line up, like it's totally obvious he should have changed it up. Had he changed it up, and they lost, people would be out of their mind that he changed it up. They also got screwed by a couple calls in the other games, but ignore all that, overturn the apple cart, and keep up the armchair quarterbacking. Americans are perpetually discontent, just waiting for moments like this to shine.

Ah Bruce was fired from the job once already - retread coach who poo poos that he can learn anything from any other soccer coach.

Last night has been building: 2015 Gold Cup, 2 straight failures to qualify to Olympics, repeated failure of MLS teams to do well in CONCAF Champions League.

MLS franchises grow in value while our soccer goes to ****.

Many of those things are beyond Bruce, but downward trend has been building.

[Unregistered]

Ah Bruce was fired from the job once already - retread coach who poo poos that he can learn anything from any other soccer coach.

Last night has been building: 2015 Gold Cup, 2 straight failures to qualify to Olympics, repeated failure of MLS teams to do well in CONCAF Champions League.

MLS franchises grow in value while our soccer goes to ****.

Many of those things are beyond Bruce, but he is a symbol of the bigger issues.

[Unregistered]

Step One: Get US Soccer out of youth soccer. Kids aren't robots. US Soccer has no successful track record developing youth talent.

Step One: Stop having your sons play soccer. Get them involved in football, basketball, baseball, downhill skiing, hunting or lawn darts. Soccer in the USA is for girls.

[Unregistered]

Step One: Get US Soccer out of youth soccer. Kids aren't robots. US Soccer has no successful track record developing youth talent.

Give them 8-10 years to try to learn how to develop kids. Don't judge them in the meantime. This is all new territory. Yes they will screw up but hopefully they will learn. In 2027 the World Cup qualifiers will be the measuring stick.

[Unregistered]

Step One: Get US Soccer out of youth soccer. Kids aren't robots. US Soccer has no successful track record developing youth talent.

Step Zero: Get Timbers out of Oregon Youth Soccer.

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Give them 8-10 years to try to learn how to develop kids. Don't judge them in the meantime. This is all new territory. Yes they will screw up but hopefully they will learn. In 2027 the World Cup qualifiers will be the measuring stick.

Hate to break it to you....but the US Soccer Development Academy has been around since 2007. 10 years has come and gone.

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Hate to break it to you....but the US Soccer Development Academy has been around since 2007. 10 years has come and gone.

I thought (was hoping) his/her post was tongue-in-cheek

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Hate to break it to you....but the US Soccer Development Academy has been around since 2007. 10 years has come and gone.

And it's produced quite a few nice prospects already. But the big wave is still not yet 21, and (again excluding Pulisic) probably not ready for senior-team international play.

But the team that choked away a shot at Russia weren't DA prospects. They came up under the old system. And were good players in their prime, but more accomplished at the old style of American soccer (park the bus and boot the ball), and this year no longer in their prime.

We'll be stuck with what the DA produces for the next couple of cycles. Some of the youngsters look good. But the problem with changes to the youth system is they take a decade to pay off, and often times the disruption can choke the pipeline in the meantime.